New York City police officers shot and killed a man after he chased a woman with a large knife on a Bronx street and refused to drop the weapon, Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.

A detective and sergeant fired a total of five or six shots Thursday night, striking the man as he turned his attention from the woman and started running toward them, Monahan said. The woman was not physically harmed. The officers were taken to a hospital for observation.

The shooting happened around 6:15 p.m. at East 233rd Street and Barnes Avenue in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. The man, whose name was not released, was taken two blocks to Montefiore Medical Center and pronounced dead.

Monahan said the detective and sergeant, assigned to a narcotics squad and wearing plain clothes, were in a car and stopped at a traffic light when they saw people fighting and heard cries for help.

Monahan said Wednesday that the man threatened to kill the woman for not calling him. When she saw him again Thursday, she ran away and other people on the street corner tried getting in the man’s way, Monahan said. That’s when the officers saw a commotion and got out of their car, he said.

Thursday’s shooting was the second by police since the beginning of the year. On Jan. 8, an officer shot a man armed with a knife who police said lunged at officers inside a Queens home.

(AP)